Four charged in 'terrifying' invasion at home with kids

Two children were home alone when three men broke into the house. The frantic mom, who was 40 minutes away, called 911 for help. (Video by FOX35)

Two children were home alone when three men broke into the house. The frantic mom, who was 40 minutes away, called 911 for help. (Video by FOX35)

Tiffany Walden, Staff Writer

Two young children cowered inside a bedroom closet in Deltona when a group of burglars broke into their house while they were inside alone on Thursday.

Their mother was roughly 30 miles away at her job in Maitland.

"Oh, my God. Someone just broke into my house. I need you right now," the 13-year-old girl whispered in a 911 call.

The intruders kicked in the bedroom door, saw the girl and her 10-year-old brother and immediately ran out empty-handed about 2 p.m., their mother told the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday.

Details of the break-in were recently released after deputies in Volusia County arrested four men who allegedly broke into the home on Captain Drive home and at least one other Deltona residence in the last few weeks.

"My kids didn't open the door. They remained quiet to get them to go away, but next thing, they're inside the house," their mother told the Orlando Sentinel. "My kids just had guardian angels. God was completely over my house, and that's it."

The Sentinel agreed to withhold her identity because of her safety concerns.

She said her children — who normally aren't left home alone — are now afraid to sit alone in their rooms even when she's in the house.

"It's just too hard of a reality. It's just been terrifying," she said. "I shouldn't have to live like a prisoner and in fear."

This week, Kenneth Beauford, 18, told deputies he knew his friends had been driving a stolen white Lexus sport-utility vehicle for about a month to commit the daytime burglaries.

Beauford, Javonte Porter, 20, and Courtney Tillman, 21, were charged with two counts of armed burglary.

The fourth alleged culprit, Jason Realford, 25, was charged with attempting to elude a law enforcement officer and grand theft of a motor vehicle.

They were booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail on Monday. They remained jailed Tuesday.

Deputies linked the men to the invasion at the Captain Drive because the homeowner's daughter and son remembered seeing a white SUV in their driveway.

And on Friday, a Deltona woman saw the white SUV backed into her home's driveway on Croton Avenue when she returned from running errands just before 4 p.m., deputies said.

The woman's surveillance system also captured images of the men pulling out a gun while scanning the inside of the home. There was no gunfire.

An alert went out to deputies Friday afternoon about the SUV. On Sunday, deputies saw it leaving a Valero gas station on Elkcam Boulevard.

They tracked the vehicle's muddy tire marks to Beauford's house on East Slater Drive, Sheriff's Office spokesman Gary Davidson said. Investigators recovered the stolen vehicle, three guns, jewelry and electronics.